Europe's greenest city

Steve Pueppke and Ray Miller examine a stand of willow trees in Växjö that are a prime source of woody biomass. The MSU scientists are interested in how the Swedes efficiently cultivate and harvest the willow.

Their quest for information about Sweden's bioeconomy has taken the Michigan travelers to Växjö (pronounced vek-shur), the town that received the European Union's inaugural award for sustainable development this year. This honor makes Växjö "Europe's greenest city," according to Hans Gulliksson, project manager of the Energy Agency for Southeast Sweden.

Like Michigan, Växjö's region is shaped like a hand, but the fingers are spread so the area is a series of peninsulas surround by five lakes. Växjö has about 80,000 residents and one university. The city is located in the heart of a forest and its residents pledged in 1996 to become free of fossil fuels by 2050. Realizing they couldn't reach such a lofty goal in one leap, the town established intermediate steps, such as halving carbon emissions per capita by 2010. So far, the city has reduced carbon emissions to 3.5 tons per person (a 25 percent reduction) and has the lowest level of any urban area in Europe. The average per capita carbon emission in Sweden is 5 tons. In comparison, the United States appears to be belching carbon—the average U.S. emission is more than 20 tons per person.

Växjö's wood-burning combined heat and power plant is a large part of the reason for the city's miniscule carbon output. Fueled by woodchips and other wood waste from area sawmills, the plant provides heat, hot water and electricity to 95 percent of the city's homes. Like other combined heat and power plants the Michigan group has visited, the plant is highly efficient and almost no wasted power goes up the smoke stack in the form of chemical gas. As a result, there's no odor and only a wisp of steam.

Ray Miller was astonished at the size of this birch tree in Växjö. Could this be a new biofuel source for Michigan?

Gulliksson explained that using biomass for heat and energy also is good for the citizens' wallets. Before the wood-burning combined heat and power plant was built, the town depended on oil, which cost about 16,000 kroner (about US $2,300) per person per year. The new biomass plant drops the price by about one-third.

The town is now taking aim at transportation fuels.

"The battle in the energy sector has been won, yes, but the next battleground is transport," said Anders Franzen, the head of planning and development for the Växjö City Council.

The town owns a fleet of ethanol-powered cars as an example for residents. Drivers of low-emission vehicles get free parking in the city. According to Gulliksson, Växjö will test a bus and truck fleet powered by dimethyl ether (DME), which can be made from the byproducts of paper production, this winter.

"Everything relevant to the bioenergy chain can be found in and around Växjö," Gulliksson said, "from the forest equipment to the combined heat and power plant. We firmly believe in what we are doing and are happy to host visitors, such as your group from Michigan, to show what we have achieved and how we have done it.”

"It's very exciting," said Steve Pueppke, head of the MSU Office of Biobased Technologies. "Växjö has implemented a systems approach and it's very successful. I'm looking forward to learning about and discussing how the universities and the state can work together with industry and Michigan residents to move the state in this direction."